I Can Get Through My Trials - Pioneer Story #4

This post comes from Amber Hagues, a resident of Santee.

My name is Amber Hagues and I was able to be one of the youth who participated in the Santee Stake Pioneer Trek. I’ve always had a love for the pioneers and admired their perseverance through everything that they had to go through, so when I heard that we were going to do our own trek, I was so excited.

I know that’s not really the reaction you would imagine a regular teenager to have about something like this, I mean what teenage girl would want to walk a bunch of miles in the desert, wearing pioneer clothes, and pulling handcarts, but seriously, because of my testimony in this church and my curiosity to know what it could have been like to do such a hard task, I really felt a desire to do something like this.

So I prepared myself to go on this trek and from the start I knew I didn’t want to complain while we were walking but I made the goal to try to lift others up in my trek family and to continue on with a glad heart no matter how hard it would be. I didn’t know if I was really going to be able to complete my goal because of how hard it would be but I wanted to try.

When we first got to the site and unloaded everything, we were put into our “families.” Mine (the Rowley family) was actually one of the smaller ones with only 3 boys and 3 girls and our Ma and Pa which I guess could have made it harder because there weren’t more people to pull the handcart but I liked it because it felt like a nice little cozy family.

Well, we started at what was supposed to be “Iowa City” and along the whole way we would run into some people who would help us have a little experience and then we would go on. These experiences actually happened to the real pioneers so it made the trek seem more realistic. Ma gave birth to a little girl along the way (we had a little doll to act as the baby) and we named her Lydia. It’s amazing to think about all these things that the pioneers had to go through. I can’t even imagine having to give birth while traveling like this and then just keep going.

As we went on, there were stops and the first day didn’t seem too hard for me but maybe that’s because my brothers were so nice and wanted to pull the handcart most of the way. So, as everyone all started getting back to the campsite we rested and ate dinner, and towards the end of the night we had some square dancing and line dancing which was really fun even though it probably just added to the blisters on my feet.

The second day got harder because this day we walked many more miles then the first day. I learned that I really don’t like soft sand trails because they’re so hard to pull the cart through. But, we kept going and there were more stops like the first day only, in a way, it was more humbling. Our new sister Lydia died from cholera and as my brothers dug a hole to bury her I couldn’t help but think about how this really did happen to so many people on the trail. We were only burying a doll, but how would it feel to have to bury your baby sister and then just have to leave her there and keep going. So many other things happened like my brother getting bit by a rattlesnake and bandits stopping us and kidnapping two of our family members.

While we were in one of our long stretches of walking I thought about how this was really nothing compared to what they really had to go through. We had enough water and food, none of us were really going to die, and we were only doing this for a couple days. There really had to be something that kept pushing these Saints forward; it was their faith in what they knew to be true.

To my biggest surprise, the hardest part of the trek was actually my favorite part. At the end was what was called the “Women’s Pull” and during this time, only the girls in the family could pull the handcart. The men couldn’t touch the handcart but they could encourage us along the way. It was pretty tough especially because at the very end was a big, steep hill (this is the first real hill we encountered the whole trek), but you could see the end the whole time. We knew that blue tarp on the hill was the “Salt Lake Valley” and so there was no way we were going to give up.

As we got closer, all I could think about was just talking and encouraging my Ma and sisters next to me and saying that we were almost there, and they were doing the same as well as our brothers and Pa. There was a point where those who had already gotten there and the men in our family could start helping at the end but when they asked if we wanted help, we told them no, like most of the other groups did, because this was something that we wanted to do ourselves. So we did it, and it was one of the most accomplishing feelings ever. With everyone at the end clapping and cheering us on, and then reaching our destination and slowly dropping the bar of the handcart as we parked it, we knew that we had proved to ourselves something that would last a long time.

Looking back on the trail and seeing all that we had gone through and thinking about all that the pioneers had gone through, I know that I can overcome any challenge that comes my way. No, we don’t have to cross the plains pulling a handcart, but we do have our own trials in this day and by doing this, I was able to prove to myself that I can get through them. I know that this experience really changed my perspective on things and yes, I would totally do something like this again. I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity strengthen myself personally and to strengthen my knowledge of what I know is true.

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